Chet Baker always struck me as a jazz romantic made miserable by the passage of time. The first four years of the 1950s were his golden moment in which he was most emotionally comfortable. By mid-decade, he seemed confused by the newness of everything and confounded that the years he loved most had slipped away like sand through his hands. His stays in Europe starting in 1955 were a retreat and a search for the earlier romance of life, a slower easier time. Like a movie star who suddenly grows too old for the parts he or she played best, Baker found himself lost, unable to retrace his steps. For someone who looked and played so sweet, Baker's eyes and horn gave him away, reflecting bewilderment and exhaustion with time's rush forward. For the trumpeter, tomorrow was an option, a place he didn't have to experience if he didn't want to. He seemed to resent and resist evolution, preferring the spring-like perfection of the early 1950s, years that had been blissful and comprehendable.
Here are six offbeat Baker videos that illustrate his uneasiness with time's haste and the anxiety he felt trying to slow it down...
Here's Baker in Rome in 1956...
Here's Baker with drummer Kenny Clarke in Belgium in 1960...
Here's a French documentary in 1963...
Here's a short film in 1963...
Here's a very brief answer to an interviewer's question about music...
Here's I'm a Fool to Want You...
Bonus: For me, the album that best captures Chet Baker in his idyllic moment is Chet Baker & Strings, recorded in late 1953 and early 1954. Here's the entire album...
